MYSORE: The city of palaces is set to emerge as the most preferred destination for tourism, given the rise in the number of visitors to Mysore over the past four years.

While the number of tourists visiting Mysore was 16.11 lakhs in 2001, it increased to 16.48 lakhs in 2003 and 18.31 lakhs in 2004.

The figure is expected to increase in 2005 and the authorities are expecting a 50 per cent increase in the number of tourists visiting Mysore during Dasara this year.

Now that the Government has woken up to the lure of the Mysore Dasara, the authorities are leaving no stone unturned in marketing its Unique Selling Proposition that remained unexploited until recently.

And supporting the Government initiative in tourism promotion is the Mysore chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which is gearing up for the Travel Mart to project Mysore as the most preferred destination.

R. Krishna, Chairman, CII, Mysore and Managing Partner of Vasu Agarbathies, told The Hindu that the focus will be on international travel agents this year unlike the previous edition where the participants were local players.

"While our initiative will supplement the Government effort, the CII is taking a long-term perspective and seeking to promote the city on a continuous basis and will not confine itself to Dasara," he said.

Preparations for the Travel Mart have commenced in the right earnest and various committees are either being constituted or have been formed and this year's mart will surpass 2004 edition both in scale and in terms of participation, he said. The preparations take about three to four months given the scale of operation and logistics involved and Mr. Krishna said the Travel Mart will be held either during December end or early January.

He said it was a conscious decision not to hold the mart during Dasara though the celebrations are Mysore's USP, as majority of the travel agents do not like to visit the city during the peak season. The organisers too prefer to hold it after the celebrations, as securing accommodation for the participants will be difficult given the large turnout.

The rationale for holding a Travel Mart focusing on Mysore stems from the fact that travel and tourism is the world's largest industry employing more than 212 million people and generating US $ 3.4 trillion in gross output.

According to a CII concept paper on tourism, the industry accounts for 10 per cent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and employs more than 10.7 per cent of the global workforce.

In India, the tourism sector supports nearly 17.4 millions jobs or 5.8 per cent of total employment, and accounts for 5.6 per cent of the GDP. This sector earns US $ 3 billion as exports and is also the second highest net foreign exchange earner.

Tourism clearly counts as one of the most remarkable economic and social phenomena of the last century and every year a bigger portion of the world population takes part in tourism. For many countries, tourism has developed to be one of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors, according to CII.

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